Britain's Got Empathy

Considering last week I talked about secondary characters in TV and the media, today I'm going to continue that streak of media, mainly television.

Well, as most of you will have heard "Britain's got the X factor" finished on Friday night and whether you watch it or not, you must of heard some of the crazy stories coming from it, the main reason for this being that the news is talking about it more than Clarkson talks about foxes, which is a lot. With a lot of these reality tv programs I tend to steer clear, who's coming out of the jungle? I don't care, but if it's mentioned that some deadbeat celeb' got jiggly with a banana tree or an ex footballer got attacked by an alligator, you can bet your house that I'll know all about it. but when it comes to these talent shows, the only reason I tune in at all is to watch the auditions, cos who doesn't love a crazed sith lord dancing to Michael Jackson? just a little note, he made it to the semi finals, you can see it here, give it a go, it's hilarious.

So, back to Fridays final. I always thought that like me, people tuned into watch idiots in fancy dress be torn down by Simon Cowell, or to see some surprisingly good dance by some kids or something, you know to have a good laugh at people a million times braver than us, apparently not, 19 million people tuned in on Friday to watch the final, the highest viewing figures ever since the dawn of time, and by the dawn of time I mean 2003, OK, so it isn't a huge deal, but it's something that got me thinking.

Reality shows are cheap to make, they cost hardly anything really, compared to hugely awesome shows such as the American "heroes" or our "Dr Who" and as we can see, people now are taking interest in the stories as oppose to just laughing when some old guy with his trousers too high say that a 60 year old puppy juggler has no chance. That's right, Britain has empathy. If you don't believe me then look at all this uproar about this Susan Boyle character (just one story of the millions.) Now I wont pretend to care what went wrong in the final, but apparently she is suffering exhaustion, and a child involved with the show also is in trauma or dead or something bad because Simon said some nasty things.

So Reality shows dominate the airwaves because they are cheap and now people of Britain actually care, they are getting brilliant viewing figures. so does this mean the end for brilliant dramas or comedies like "How I met your mother" "Dr Who" "House" "Heroes" and all the other well thought out, well acted (occasionally) and well loved shows? No, it doesn't, and Ill tell you one reason why, well I could give you a million reasons why. Ill ask you, does anyone remember Steve Brookstein? What about Brian Dowling? Or even Racheal Rice? Any one remember? No, well they are all winners of reality shows of television past. What about "Martin Hoberg Hedegaard" well you shouldn't really, he's the 2008 winner of Denmark's Xfactor. The reason these shows just wont succeed is simple, they are like the television version of milk, really good for bringing in the money, but have a shelf life as long as Tom Cruise is tall. they're not like shows such as "vicar of Dibley", or "only fools and horses", real British comedy which people still remember today people forget about them as soon as the next one comes along. which is why proper television will always prevail, because people can remember more than one sitcom at a time.

Joe Strange

I say we'll forget them all, but I will NEVER forget Darth Jackson. Ever.